Civ IV walkthrough on Youtube!!

[tks2103]

Hey guys!

After a year long hiatus, I've been able to do another Civ IV BTS walkthrough on youtube! I'm currently in the process of recording the whole thing, but the first 3 segments are live right now. You can check the first one here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQaUJkhYH9Y

Hope y'all enjoy!

Tanoy (tks2103)

P.S. Monarch Pangaea Random everything.

[Darkeagle6]

That's awesome! I saw your first video back when I started playing the game about six months ago, and your advice is basically what helped me get through the early levels and start playing noble. Glad to see you're doing more, they're fun to watch, especially now that I understand pretty much everything you're doing!

[barbertje]

Nice warring, but putting a great general healer as the only axe in a stack of city raider swordsmen?

[schludy]

Nice video!

I don't often do early wars... Do the tactics of war change there a little? After you took (burned) the first city, you wait a couple of turns to get reinforcements. Normally I build my stack big enough to take out an enemy completely. Is that different for early wars? If so, why?

Btw, I would turn lucky huts and events off, if you do a walkthrough.

[ahcos]

Nice first video overall. Few observations:

1. Why do you grow on libs you don't finish? Hammers will decay, you could've grown on units..

2. I'm pretty sure it's a bad plan to not work the gold that early no matter how fast you want to grow

3. Pottery is a pure waste for you that early, you should've chased Math or Alpha instead.

4. Wheel on the other hand comes way too late, should've been your tech after BW. You have writing and a AI nearby? Open borders and make use of the traderoutes! There's no downside for you there.

5. Why didn't you abuse the whip? I can understand that you do not want to whip the cap, but that 2nd town should've been whipped a few times if you ask me regardless of the non existant granary, with a early happy cap at 7 (with gold) that could've speed up your military buildups by quite a few turns. Accordingly, not enough chops. A quick buildup is crucial for warfare.

There are several minor things, but those things really stood out imo.

[lymond]

Why don't you use the BUG mod? Blue Marble is nice as well

[vranasm]

how much trolling you're willing to accept from me?

Spoiler:

ok I don't consider dry corn that much stronger then financial coastal clams. I almost thing going with worker and BW (both 15T) and chop the WB would be probably strongest (with teching agri)

Plains hill is certainly worse tile then Grassland hill and improving plains! tile when there is so much trees standing and you need quicker expansion?

And I seriously hope you didn't went for IW before wheel/anything other....

I am now at 14 mins mark and had to spit out my early game feelings.

[vranasm]

Spoiler:

I don't understand the panic around T50... you were pretty late for pure axe rush as is, against prot civ.

you could for sure bunker down on 3 cities, connect them properly, grow etc and tech towards cats.

you could have placed 2 cities around those 2 fishes probably, one completely south, the other on the desert 1E of GH I think.

Still don't understand the IW tech if you had copper...

ah one more thing! when you're already standing on a hill and will eventually connect the copper, you should have built the road right away imo

Spoiler:

library in city 2? come'on! another worker!! you were running only 2 workers.

you really need to streamline city builds... the capital was confusing. if you already dedicated to settler, just finish it! you build a library, finish it! especially if you have long term target with construction which needs a lot of bpt.

the sword at the point was totally unwarranted. more like another worker was needed.

Spoiler:

wow you really razed city with the only source of horse for you and another calendar resource (dye)!?

I wouldn't tech alpha at that point, more like currency, but I would do a lot of things other way anyway.

and one last thing... colosseum, when you're charismatic and have not monument yet?!

[gspchamp999]

Spoiler:

If you knew you were going to raze Shanghai, why not finish the settler from your capital that was one turn away from completion and have him settle the fish spot the turn that Shanghai was captured.

Also, I agree with worker instead of library in city 2. Chop everything in capital including two work boats for the new city, switch to slavery and have city 3 whip em out.

Haha, I loved how that slave revolt in Beijing knocked out the cultural defense.

Edit: Whats with all the razing?

[Tycho]

Interesting. I'll be tuning in and watching all of it.

[Keilah]

Spoiler:

The first Chinese city you razed, Shanghai, was blocking the 'fishing village' spot... but you could have just planted it 1s :/ Especially since you had a settler 2t from completion! Then you could have kept Shanghai instead of razing it, too.
You should absolutely have opened borders with the Chinese as soon as you hit writing. You get some trade route income and can scout his land. Often you can find his copper and position a unit to deny it on the first few turns of war.

[TheMeInTeam]

Originally Posted by barbertje

Nice warring, but putting a great general healer as the only axe in a stack of city raider swordsmen?

No joke. The ONLY typically acceptable unit to attach GG to for medic purposes IMO is a scout. A scout:

1. Will not be defending unless you're basically wiped out already, other units might defend and die.
2. Scouts can always make combat 1 medic III with an attached GG, just like any other unit
3. Scouts already start with 2 moves, so they can keep up with mounted and don't need morale promotion to do it.
4. Scouts are inexpensive; much less than alternative fighting units and that is perfect for a unit that is never intended to see battle.

Virtually nothing else is acceptable by comparison, although occasionally one can use a very old warrior or axe or something if you attach in a much later era. Even then, however, the scout still has 2 moves at base.

[tks2103]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Keep in mind that I am playing while commentating live. That's the source of a lot of mistakes. It's much easier to plan with a clear head offline for me =).

Spoiler:

Obviously point about the Healer Axeman. I made that mistake twice, in this playthrough.

I steer clear of slavery until I can really exploit it. Slave revolts are rough, and I though I could push out enough units to deal with the Chinese without it.

Generally speaking on Pangaea maps, I tend to push my outer ring of cities as far as possible and backfill the space in later. When I saw the Chinese moving east, I made the judgement call to push them back as far as possible through war. I didn't think founding the Fishing Village fit into that plan for war. I can always found it later.

I don't leverage early trade routes very much (The Wheel/Open Borders). Might be something to focus on.

[vranasm]

well about the axe medic... if I remember right you had there woodsman III warrior? surely best choice with attaching healer general.

generally you can make medic healers with
a) unit that is obsolete
b) unit that is the same type as your main attack force (I tend to make cuirs medics, since I usually don't generate GG before ren war), he typically doesn't defend.

the scout suggestion from TMIT is good one, but I usually am too lazy to sneak in some scout...

one thing I got from watching AZ videos... you can for sure make at least healer I unit even before GG and it's worth it.

[Keilah]

pretty sure woodsman 3 + GG isn't quite enough to make the super-ultra-omega healer, but what he should have done is had that warrior moving together with his stack. That + a regular medic is about = to the super-medic, and then you make a super-medic, which combined with the wood3 warrior is the best healing you'll find.

[TheMeInTeam]

Originally Posted by Keilah

pretty sure woodsman 3 + GG isn't quite enough to make the super-ultra-omega healer, but what he should have done is had that warrior moving together with his stack. That + a regular medic is about = to the super-medic, and then you make a super-medic, which combined with the wood3 warrior is the best healing you'll find.

Medic promos do not stack unless they're on the same unit. With 2 medics, only the one that heals more counts (In this case, woods III would have been worth slightly more healing than medic I and thus should have been used as a medic until he got a GG and attached it to his scout).

The problem with pursuing woods III medic III is that you have to fight battles with your medic to get there, risking losing it. Having it will, at most, save you 1 turn of healing beyond simple medic III but they will often be identical! Only a truly redlined sub 20% health unit will take more than 2 turns to heal to full hp in a captured city with just medic III, and adding woods III will still not quite fully heal things in 1 turn consistently.

The end result is that "perfect medic" has only a marginal benefit over medic III and carries non-marginal risk or multiple GG attach GG spreads that weaken the utility of other units.

[Keilah]

what, really? I thought because wood3 / medic1 were totally different, they would stack =[

well anyways, he can just use the wood3 warrior as a backup medic then.

[lymond]

Originally Posted by Keilah

what, really? I thought because wood3 / medic1 were totally different, they would stack =[

well anyways, he can just use the wood3 warrior as a backup medic then.

TMIT knows the code far better than me, but I thought WIII and Medic would stack on 2 different units, although I usually always try to get them on one if I can. Are you sure about this, TMIT? If so, i guess the game is saying that despite the promos being different that there can only ever be one medic unit per stack regardless, which kinda makes sense in a way.

[TheMeInTeam]

Originally Posted by lymond

TMIT knows the code far better than me, but I thought WIII and Medic would stack on 2 different units, although I usually always try to get them on one if I can. Are you sure about this, TMIT? If so, i guess the game is saying that despite the promos being different that there can only ever be one medic unit per stack regardless, which kinda makes sense in a way.

One medic per stack. Stronger healing wins.

Don't forget that enemy/neutral/friendly territory/cities makes a difference too; you heal more than the medic value.

[vicawoo]

Mistake number 1: using play now. It takes more clicks than custom game.

Would consider moving 1W if you're on the edge of your continent, if you don't lose any tiles. Distance maintenance is approximately d/3.5 x difficulty, so with a larger empire will start to add up. Not a huge deal.

Early gold can handle you early tech needs, so pottery/writing is a lower priority. At size 2 you'll only have corn (+3) and a gold mine (+1) to worker/settler production, so your production will be the same as a size 1 plains cow.

Considering wonder starts not so good on pangea, especially on a corner as you cannot go aggressively for land, but you mention that later.

Workboat after worker is risky if your initial warrior/scout dies.

Usually if you go early BW and see copper, and you don't see pastureable tiles, consider the wheel next for a slight commerce boost and earlier barb defense. Edit: but I just saw the cow, and that 1N of cow would be one of your stronger fast expansion cities.

If you go 2N of cow, mysticism before AH since you won't be able to pasture until your border pops. I don't like monument first in second city though as it's a "waste" of early hammers when it's most important.

Mining instead of chopping another forest while building a settler: your city cant' work the mine until it's size 4 anyway, so chopping would be slightly more efficient.

Sentry is preferable to fortify, especially on less promoted warriors. 1-2 combat 1 or two barb archer could kill your warrior, and sentry wakes up your unit in those cases so you can consider whether to run away. You still get the fortify bonus.

Iron working isn't high priority with copper and no jungles, definitely wheel before iron working.

Qin settles: this is when chopping before mine, and a size 2 settler on pangea would be more useful. You can't steal the cow either since his first border pop will accumulate 20 culture per turn on his inner tiles, while you can only pressure 1 culture per turn, so you might as well settle closer to the bronze. You might get the cow, but he can easily steal it back.

Not working the gold to speed up the library ends up losing beakers. This is a moderate mistake.

Library at capital is kind of bad for rushing, justifiable if you're aiming for catapults. Library at the second city is a pretty huge mistake, since you get very little benefit and 90 hammers is a lot. 2+ Swordsman could easily make or break a rush.

Should open borders and scout if you're not attacking within 10 turns. Also, if his capital is not on a hill (+40-60%, relative to the second city), it might be easier to kill than his less valuable city on a hill (+50% defense for archers).

Axes vs archers is better than swords for archers, so if you expect he has metal (or better yet scout it), it's often better to add more axes in place of swords. Semi-Moderately important